"Watts per kilo don't count for everything" - Former INEOS road captain Luke Rowe questions cycling's power obsession as Decathlon take on peloton's biggest teams

Luke Rowe believes positioning, tactical intelligence and racing instinct still count for more than raw power in some of professional cycling's biggest races. The former Team Sky and INEOS road captain has spent the past two seasons working to improve Decathlon CMA CGM Team's Classics performances, with the French squad enjoying one of the most successful campaigns in their history in 2026.

Speaking alongside former teammate Geraint Thomas on the latest episode of the Watts Occurring podcast, Rowe reflected on his second year as a sports director at Decathlon, who have climbed to fourth in the UCI team rankings.

Paul Seixas claimed the organisation's first Monument at Il Lombardia, Felix Gall reached two Grand Tour podiums and Olav Kooij delivered a Tour de France stage victory.

Rowe's own responsibilities centred on the cobbled Classics, where Decathlon recorded eight top-ten finishes across nine races, compared with just three the previous year.

"I think the Classics is one of few areas of the season where watts per kilo don't count for everything," Rowe explained. "It definitely counts for a lot, but I think it's the one area of professional cycling where it doesn't count for almost everything."

Rowe spent more than a decade riding for Sky and INEOS, an organisation renowned for its scientific approach to preparation and performance. His experience on the cobbles of northern France and Belgium has nevertheless taught him that the strongest rider does not always get the result. "It's unpredictable. It's a lot about the way you race, positioning, knowledge of the roads, going out with a clear plan," he continued, before discussing the importance of adapting when that plan goes wrong.

Decathlon's nine-race cobbled campaign included Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, E3 Saxo Classic, Dwars door Vlaanderen, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. Six of those races produced at least one top-ten finish, with Tobias Lund Andresen coming closest to victory when he finished second behind Jasper Philipsen at In Flanders Fields, formerly Gent-Wevelgem.

Rowe also compared the team's best finishing positions across all nine races with their corresponding results in 2025, calculating an aggregate improvement of 25 places.

There was another change when the leading contenders began forcing the decisive selections. "When it gets down to that big explosion and there's 30 guys or 40 guys left, previously we've had one or two there and we were there with real numbers," he explained.

That gave Decathlon more riders capable of covering attacks, supporting their leaders and taking advantage when the favourites began marking one another. "Not like a breakthrough Classics campaign for us, but very consistent, very good," Rowe said. "Also the way they were racing and our mentality and way of racing took a big step forward."

A victory at Flanders or Roubaix remained out of reach, but Rowe could see the benefit of the work undertaken since his arrival ahead of the 2025 season. His extensive experience in those races had been a significant factor in Decathlon recruiting him following his retirement from INEOS.

When Thomas recalled racing against the old AG2R team, he offered a particularly blunt description of how the French squad had once been regarded. "When we think to AG2R when we were racing, it was a joke team," he remarked, immediately correcting himself. "It wasn't a joke team, but it certainly wasn't a top team. It's middle of the table, wasn't it?"

Rowe recalled the organisation finishing 18th in the WorldTour rankings in 2023, before Decathlon's increased investment helped accelerate its development. By 2026, the team had risen to fourth, behind UAE Team Emirates - XRG, Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe and Team Visma | Lease a Bike.

The difference in expectations was something Rowe remembered particularly clearly from his first season with the team. "If you're on the start line going, if we perform perfect today we can get a guy in ninth or 10th place, it's quite a hard mentality to go into a race," he said.

He recalled asking riders to give everything for a leader whose best possible outcome, even with a perfectly executed plan, might be eighth place.

With Seixas, Kooij, Lund Andresen and Gall providing leadership across different terrains, those limitations no longer defined every race. "When you see people within your team winning and you think, well, he's not that much better than me. If he can do it, why can't I?" Rowe explained. "Now we're on the start line going, well, if everything was perfect, even if we haven't some races got the strongest guy, like we can win, honestly believe you can win."

The arrival of stronger riders has coincided with changes behind the scenes. Decathlon have increasingly looked outside their traditional recruitment networks, bringing in experienced staff from other WorldTour organisations and different nationalities. "I don't care where someone's from. If they're French, German, Japanese, doesn't matter as long as they're good in their role," Rowe said.

He credited bringing together staff from different teams and backgrounds, then getting everyone working towards common objectives, with helping the organisation improve.

Much of that transformation was already underway when Rowe joined. Decathlon became a title sponsor in 2024, bringing greater investment to the long-established French team, with CMA CGM joining as a title partner for 2026.

The most spectacular results came from Paul Seixas, whose rise from teenage prospect to Monument winner has transformed Decathlon's ambitions. He won La Fleche Wallonne and Itzulia Basque Country during the spring, with second place at Liege-Bastogne-Liege providing further evidence of his ability to compete against the world's leading riders.

A fourth-place finish on his Tour de France debut followed in July, before Seixas claimed Il Lombardia in October. At just 20, he became the first rider in the organisation's history to win one of cycling's five Monuments.

His performances have already made him one of the most closely watched young riders in the peloton, with the prospect of challenging Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel over three weeks now a genuine long-term ambition for Decathlon.

The team also found success in areas where they had previously struggled to compete consistently. Olav Kooij, recruited from Team Visma | Lease a Bike, won stage five of the Tour de France in Pau, giving Decathlon a prestigious sprint victory to accompany their growing strength in the mountains and Classics.

Kooij had missed much of the opening half of the season before returning to competition in June. Tobias Lund Andresen, meanwhile, had made an encouraging start to the year before illness interrupted his campaign. "We missed Olav for the first half, Tobias for the second half," Rowe explained.

For all their difficulties in keeping both sprinters fit, Decathlon finished the season with 33 victories and 98 podiums according to the team's official figures.

Seixas naturally accounted for the most prestigious successes, but the contributions of Kooij, Lund Andresen and the Grand Tour squad allowed Decathlon to remain competitive across considerably more of the calendar.

Felix Gall produced the strongest Grand Tour season of his career in 2026, finishing second at the Giro d'Italia behind Jonas Vingegaard and third at the Vuelta a Espana.

Ahead of the Giro, Decathlon had concentrated on an area of the Austrian's racing that had previously left him vulnerable. "His Achilles heel traditionally was positioning, losing time on descents," Rowe acknowledged.

With several important stages featuring technical descents after major climbs, sports director Luke Roberts and the team's staff assembled video footage of the roads and identified sections where Gall would need to remain with his rivals. "We had video of all the descents. I think he rode a couple of them," Rowe said.

Gall was also prepared for the possibility of following his rivals downhill at speed in difficult weather conditions, rather than arriving at those moments uncertain about what to expect.

The Austrian remained among the strongest climbers throughout the Giro, finishing second on five individual stages according to Rowe. "I think he was genuinely the second best," Rowe said. "It's not always the case normally in a Grand Tour."

The one frustration was the absence of a stage victory. Despite Gall's consistency and the opportunities available to Tobias Lund Andresen on flatter stages, Decathlon finished the Giro without an individual win.

Gall subsequently added third place at the Vuelta behind Enric Mas and Primoz Roglic. With Seixas having finished fourth at the Tour, Decathlon ended 2026 with a rider inside the top four of all three Grand Tours.

His departure for Lidl-Trek nevertheless leaves a significant gap in their plans for 2027, particularly with fellow Austrian and mountain domestique Gregor Mühlberger also joining the German team.

Decathlon have already recruited considerable experience to reinforce their climbing group, securing the arrivals of Ben O'Connor, Pavel Sivakov and Laurens De Plus.

O'Connor returns after two seasons with Jayco AlUla, having finished second at the 2024 Vuelta a Espana during his previous spell with the French organisation. Sivakov arrives from UAE Team Emirates - XRG, where he has supported Pogacar, while De Plus joins from Netcompany INEOS.

The three signings provide experienced options for the Grand Tours as Decathlon look to build on Seixas's breakthrough, while Gall's departure also creates opportunities for other climbers within the squad.

Rowe's cobbled Classics programme faces a more immediate target. His riders have become regular contenders in the decisive selections, but the major victories that would establish Decathlon among the strongest teams on the cobbles have so far remained out of reach.

The Welshman's third spring as a sports director will therefore come with considerably higher expectations than his first. Having overseen eight top-ten finishes in 2026, Rowe will now be looking for a rider capable of finishing the job against the established specialists at races such as the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.